ESTA requirements: do you actually qualify?

There are four requirements, and you must meet all of them. Most refusals come from the fourth.

1. Citizenship of a Visa Waiver Program country

You must be a citizen — not merely a resident — of one of the 42 Visa Waiver Program countries. A German passport holder living in Brazil qualifies. A Brazilian citizen living in Germany does not, and needs a B1/B2 visa instead.

See the full list of eligible countries.

2. An electronic passport

Since 1 April 2016 the passport must be an e-passport: one with an embedded chip holding your biometric data. You can identify it by the small rectangular camera symbol on the front cover.

The passport must also be valid for your entire stay. Some countries have an agreement letting their citizens travel on a passport expiring within six months of arrival, but do not rely on it without checking.

3. The right kind of trip

An ESTA covers tourism, business and transit — and nothing else.

Allowed: holidays, visiting family, attending conferences and meetings, negotiating contracts, medical treatment, short recreational study, and connecting through a US airport.

Not allowed: paid work for a US employer, journalism, studying for credit, performing for payment, or arriving as crew. Those need the appropriate visa, and being refused entry for using an ESTA to work is difficult to recover from.

4. Your travel and immigration history

This is where most people come unstuck, and it is worth reading carefully.

You are not eligible for the Visa Waiver Program if you have travelled to Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen on or after 1 March 2011 — or 12 January 2021 in the case of Cuba. Narrow exemptions exist for military and official government travel.

You are also ineligible if you are a dual national of Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan or Syria, regardless of whether you have ever been there.

Being caught by either rule does not bar you from the United States. It means applying for a B1/B2 visa instead, where a consular officer can consider your circumstances properly.

The nine eligibility questions

The application ends with nine questions covering communicable diseases, arrests and convictions, drug offences, past visa refusals, previous overstays, and the travel history above.

Answer them truthfully. A “yes” does not automatically disqualify you — a false answer is a misrepresentation to the US government, which is far more serious and far harder to undo than a refused ESTA.

If you are unsure how a past arrest or conviction should be answered, speak to a qualified immigration attorney. That is not a question a website can answer for you, and we do not attempt it.

What this does not guarantee

An approved ESTA is permission to board, not permission to enter. A Customs and Border Protection officer at the airport makes the final decision, and can refuse you even with a valid authorization. In practice this is uncommon for travellers whose stated purpose matches their circumstances.

Quick checklist

Eight yeses and you qualify. Any no, and you are looking at a B1/B2 visa instead.